In defense of Claiborne
Claiborne getting lots of grief because he missed a huge hole and tried to pop outside, getting tackled for a loss. But IMO this was just a great play by the defender more than a failure of our young RB. Lets look at some stills from the tape
Here he is, looks like a massive hole with the FB lead.
But next instance, what does he see? He looks to be following Bredeson up the hole, but notice the defender peeking inside. That hole appears to be about to close. Still probably should have hit it and taken the 3-4 yards.
But instead he reads that and bumps outside. But that defender completely destroys Oliver and sheds him to the inside as Claiborne puts his foot in the ground and heads outside.
He gets tackled for a loss. But this was more on Oliver and a good play by the defender to peek inside, but maintain the edge.
The next evolution for Claiborne would be to hit that hole and press the defender. Its what the good ones do. So many times I watched Adrian Peterson get SO close to the defenders and just juke or blow past them once he was right on top of them. Its like in basketball going down low with a taller defender: if you drive right into him, in the chest and go up, he can't elevate. Its tough to defend being pressed because it limits what you can do.
My suggestion to Claiborne would be to follow #45 until you see a different colored jersey.
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here”
Shakespeare
I think Claiborne is reading Oliver's body position. At the decision point, Oliver is clearly on the outside of the defender facing in. If I'm the back, I would probably read that and bounce it outside too. Oliver just couldn't stick with the block.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
—George Orwell
MaroonBells wrote:
I think Claiborne is reading Oliver's body position. At the decision point, Oliver is clearly on the outside of the defender facing in. If I'm the back, I would probably read that and bounce it outside too. Oliver just couldn't stick with the block.
Exactly. The defender showed inside, Oliver looks to have outside position. Yeah, in hindsight the best option would have been to hit the hole, but reading that play, I can understand his decision. Or in other words, it isn't simply that Claiborne is blind and stupid as some would posit.
Good points and view, I think that is where he speed need to comes into play, for someone with his speed, I would think he could beat the defender who is shedding Olver to the hole, he has to read it and hit the hole, he should be right on Brederson's back riding him to the other defender coming in and then break it out to the opposite side that Brederson that takes that defender.
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